Jade
by kristii
Summary: Years after the Last Battle, the Lady Mars reflects on her brief time with Jadeite, and the unexpected course of events that have followed...


My first real story: I wrote this when I was thirteen, and haven't   
reworked it since. Like it? Hate it? Tell me: Aznvballgurl@yahoo.com.  
  
Mars and affiliated characters (c) Naoko Takeuchi  
  
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He loved me once.  
  
We were children then; happy, carefree, still untouched by the  
cruelty of that harsh world: reality. Oh, we had seen death and pain  
and destruction--both of us had killed and watched men die--but it had   
not affected us, not yet. We were young lovers, doing our duty,   
serving our lords... It was natural to kill for them, and we knew of   
no other way of life; knew nothing, save our oaths, and each other.   
  
We were engaged, I remember. It was a dark, beautiful night   
when he proposed to me, the night of the Princess's eighteenth   
birthday ball. That night... oh, god, I remember it so clearly still:  
while the others danced away the hours, we had gone out to a balcony,   
watching the stars glitter above us. There, he had asked my hand in   
marriage; there, under the light of the distant Earth, I had granted  
it... There, for a few brief hours, we had thought that all was   
well...   
  
But then, war began, and the Queen refused to aid his country;   
I disobeyed her orders and fought for him nontheless. The Queen was   
furious with me--she actually teleported to Earth, right in the middle  
of the battlefield, to grab my arm and drag me back to the moon... I   
was a disgrace, she told me; I was a warrior, trained to obey, and yet   
I had failed in that duty... Where was my loyalty to my princess, to   
the oath I had taken so many years ago?   
  
She had wanted me to admit my mistakes, to repent for my role   
in his battles. Instead, I had stood proud before her, refusing to   
denounce my actions, firm in the devlaration that I had done nothing   
wrong. I questioned her judgment, even, demanded to know how she could   
claim to be for love and justice when she would not let her people   
fight for their love, fight for the forces of justice...  
  
And then she glared at me, and while the others cringed and   
the Princess begged for mercy and I still stood strong, she told me   
that she was breaking my engagement. She had already sent word to   
Earth that the Lady Mars was not to wed the Prince's general; that   
as he had caused the Lady Mars to go against her orders, he posed a   
threat to the welfare and stability of the Moon; that she, as Queen,   
could not allow him to remain my lover...  
  
She wanted to break me then, I know. She wanted to hear me   
cry,to see me fall to my knees and beg for her to reconsider. She   
envisioned me screaming, sobbing, pleading for her to sanction our   
love, and then, when she was satisfied, she would tell me she would   
not...  
  
But I did not cry, nor scream, nor beg for mercy. Our love is   
unconditional, I said, looking her straight in the eye. You may not   
approve of our love, but it is not something that can be dictated by   
the will of other parties, the will of those who are not involved. He   
still loved me, I said simply; I still loved him. And nothing she   
did--nothing anyone did--nothing, could break the bond between us...  
  
But I was wrong.   
  
The years have passed, and we are no longer the children of   
the past. Our innocence is gone now, our minds hardened by the war and   
destruction we have lived through, even caused. He no longer loves me,   
but another... a man, as it is. He loves the general that accompanied   
him throughout his life in the Negaverse, and that life has bound them   
closely together, as close as we once were... Even closer, perhaps.   
  
After the last battle, Serena revived the four of them   
somehow, brought them to Tokyo to begin new lives. Ami and Mina have   
their loves back, but not Mako and I....  
  
I see him sometimes, walking down the street with his love,   
laughing, talking, so casual and free. Gone is the man of careful re-  
serve, the enigma waiting to be probed, to be uncovered, by the hands   
of the daughter of Mars...  
  
Mako was with me once, and she cried to see them. I did   
not--they are happy together. They have few memories of the past, of   
loving us, of not being the lovers they are now. Kunzite and Zoisite   
remember, and have parted as friends, nothing more, both deciding to   
reclaim their ancient loves...  
  
They have not. They are happiest with each other, and I do not  
begrudge them that. He has a right--they have a right--to be happy,   
after the nightmare of their last thousand years...  
  
But one time, as we passed the two of them, I saw the   
recognition in his eyes. And the next time I passed him, he was   
silent, keeping his head lowered, refusing to meet my gaze. So he   
remembers now, I know, but is not willing to let me back into his   
life...  
  
I found a ring on the temple steps that night. It was not  
really a ring anymore, just two pieces of charred metal, a few rubies,   
a small diamond... No, it was not a ring anymore, but I still   
recognized it, and knew what it meant...  
  
He had given me that ring when he proposed to me that night.   
It had been an exquisite piece of work, delicate and golden, the gems  
gleaming in the faint light. It represented our love, he told me, as   
he took me into his arms. It would be the symbol of our passion, of   
our souls, joined as one... I had lost the ring on the battlefield   
moments before the Queen came, and that was, I think, when our   
relationship began to crumble. My lover's words had been too true when   
he told me of the ring... Its loss had been the first sign of our   
failing love; now, a thousand years later, its return in such a   
form was the last. This is our love now, he was telling me. This is   
our love--charred, broken, crumbling with age--a love that he no   
longer cares for, a love that he no longer wants...  
  
Those fragments lie in my jewelry box now, protected by a   
spell that I alone can break. Sometimes, when I am alone at night and   
my heart aches with pain, I take them out and hold them... For they   
are my last link to the past, a past where all was beautiful, where   
life was pleasant and all were free of pain. They are my last link to   
the life I once lived; to the young Martian princess, who loved and   
was loved; the young princess who, somewhere along the journey of   
life, I have lost....  
  
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End file.
